January 20, 1995 seemed like an ordinary day. In retrospect, however, it can be said that he turned the lives of Robert Wójtowicz's relatives upside down. A 23-year-old man left the house around noon to take out the garbage for a while. He was then last seen by one of the neighbors.
In the sources on this case, it is often mentioned that Robert was then supposed to go to lectures at his university, i.e. the Jagiellonian University. It is worth adding, however, that the psychology student not only did not appear on them. He also missed classes that started at 10:00. This is interesting because he was always a very diligent and punctual student.
The Wójtowicz family was an ordinary loving family from Kraków. The couple had three children - a daughter and two sons. The head of the family, Lech, left to find bread in Russia. The man worked in Magnitogorsk and earned much better than in his native country. Due to the distance between them, members of the Wójtowicz family rarely had the opportunity to spend time together. However, they remained in contact by letter and telephone.
Lech, who worked in Russia, planned to return to Poland for some time. His wife and daughter worked, and the son studied at one of the best universities in the country. Everything seemed to be heading in the best direction until the ill-fated January day.
The concerned family wanted to report Robert's disappearance to the local police. The officers, however, did not care much about the case. They said they had to wait 48 hours. The distraught student's mother called her husband. The man decided to return home as soon as possible to help in the search and support the others.
Investigators finally began to investigate the disappearance of a young student. At the beginning, a scenario was checked, which assumed that the missing man joined the sect. In the 1990s, a record number of suspicious religious associations actually operated in Poland. The spiritual and relatively lonely boy could become an easy target for the sect's leaders. Additionally, spirituality was very important to Robert. The man was also interested in religions in general and even in the paranormal. However, no evidence has been found to support this theory.
The investigators also considered that the psychology student might have consciously cut himself off from his previous life and started a new one completely somewhere else. The relatives agreed, however, that the man was very attached to his family members, with whom he got along well. While escape is a fairly common cause of disappearances, in this case it seemed rather unrealistic.
One of the main investigative theories from the beginning was suicide. Robert's family strongly denied such a possibility. The 23-year-old was very devout and attended church regularly. He was also active in academic chaplaincy. As you know, taking one's own life according to the Catholic faith is a very serious sin that a man would not commit according to his relatives.
The Wójtowicz family also claimed that Robert had no reason to decide to commit suicide. Admittedly, opinions are divided here. The boy didn't have a girlfriend or many friends. He spent most of his time alone or in the company of his family, with whom he was very close. On the other hand, that was the character. He was said to be extremely serious and mature, far beyond his age.
It is also worth adding that Robert used to live away from his family in the past. He graduated from the Aviation High School in Dęblin, and then studied for three semesters at the Military Medical Academy in Łódź. However, he missed home, so he decided to return to his hometown of Krakow.
It cannot be ruled out that the 23-year-old suffered from depression or depressive states, but it has never been confirmed. However, it should be remembered that relatives almost always rule out the suicide of a missing person or a person who died in unexplained circumstances. Family members in similar cases also often claim that she did not have major problems from which she would like to escape. In reality, however, it is sometimes different.
Of course, there was another possibility - that Robert had been abducted or murdered. At first, investigators thought this was an unlikely hypothesis. In the context of the information that came to light many years later, this scenario suddenly turned out to be very likely.
In the course of the journalistic investigation, it turned out that priests from the Archdiocese of Krakow could be related to the disappearance. Father Adam's behavior was particularly suspicious. The curate was then the guardian of the pastoral ministry to which Robert belonged. The psychology student spent a lot of time with the priest. Wójtowicz was also supposed to visit a priest in his apartment.
After the disappearance of the 23-year-old curate, he was very depressed and behaved strangely. The priest also started to drink alcohol. He reportedly had the biggest alcohol problems when the round anniversary of Robert's disappearance was approaching. On the occasion of a journalistic confrontation, Father Adam's brother, Andrzej, became very nervous while talking about Wójtowicz. He started screaming that the two of them had killed him, wrapped his body in a carpet, put it in a car and taken it away. Then he added that he was only joking. You have to admit, it's a very specific sense of humor...
Priests were also examined using a polygraph. The results indicated that male involvement in the student's disappearance was very likely. Interesting information was also to be revealed during the trip to Malta. It took place in 2018 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the priestly ordination. Two priests were to admit that Robert died, and they know exactly what happened to him.
After the publication of an article from 2018, which contained new information about the disappearance of Wójtowicz, the investigation was resumed. The District Prosecutor's Office in Kraków became interested in new leads and wanted to verify them. Several more years have passed since then. Although it seems that we are close to knowing the whole truth, the investigation is officially still ongoing. Let's hope that it will be possible to determine what happened to Robert Wójtowicz, and those responsible for his disappearance will be punished.
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